South Downs, March 6-8, 2015

We stayed at Lower Beddington Youth Hostel near Lewes, which included some of us sleeping in camping pods. However, Keyna and James didn’t realise that it involved sleeping on the floor with no mattresses and hadn’t bought mats. Luckily for them, there was an ensuite room available on the Friday night which they enjoyed and the hostel kindly moved mattresses into the pod on Saturday! The motto is: check details before you go!

On Saturday we all caught the train to Seaford, conveniently the station was only a 2 minute walk from the hostel. Heading straight to the beach we started off on our 14 mile walk towards Eastbourne (although it was in fact quite a bit longer). It was a gloriously, sunny day and the Seven Sisters looked stunning, so great for photos.

We finally arrived in Eastbourne in time for afternoon tea on the pier, or for James and Keyna a visit to the pub. Then it was back on the train to the hostel.

In the evening we headed to a local hostelry for an excellent meal. However, on the way back Sue and Keyna were chatting away and didn’t see the red warning light on the railway track and were shocked when a train came speeding towards them beeping its horn! It was a near escape!

On Sunday James and Keyna headed back to Newbury while the rest of us had our first experience of Geo caching, thanks to Angela. We set off from the Long Man at Wilmington, with maps and phone to search for boxes cleverly hidden in various places en route. Most of us had our first go at navigating and finding the boxes, so Newbury Mountain Club is recorded as having been there and done it! Unfortunately the weather deteriorated and as we were tired from Saturday’s long walk we shortened the route and all headed back home.